THERE were dire warnings of increased noise and pollution levels if Dunsfold Park is transformed into a new airport.

“If it comes about the whole of Cranleigh will be blighted,” declared one villager at a meeting on Tuesday (May 24).

“It will be an environmental disaster – noise levels and pollution will go up. It will destroy the character of Cranleigh,” he said.

At the annual Cranleigh Parish Meeting, the man said he had lived in the village in the past and had returned because it was vibrant but also quiet.

He asked the parish council what it had done to oppose the application by Dunsfold Park for a lawful development certificate (LDC) for unrestricted aviation and what it had done to let everyone in Cranleigh know about it.

The authority’s planning committee chairman, Cllr Mary Foryszewski, acknowledged the ‘distress and concern’ caused by the application, but said it would not have been practical to have contacted everybody in Cranleigh.

She said a response had been sent to the borough council, highlighting the fears that had been raised, but she explained the LDC was not a planning application, so there was nothing tangible.

She also pointed out that not everyone in Cranleigh was opposed to the idea of an intensification of flying at Dunsfold.

Resident Frank Gray, who has launched an action group to oppose the plans, said: “Thousands of people in this village will be impacted by this.”

He acknowledged it was a legal matter, but said important aviation issues needed to be addressed, including the conflict with Gatwick, the times flights would be allowed and their frequency.

Cranleigh’s new county councillor, Alan Young, said: “We have a restriction on Dunsfold in terms of the number of vehicular movements and we have written to Waverley to make sure this is maintained.”

Answering complaints that a lot of people were not aware of what could happen at Dunsfold, parish council chairman Cllr Brian Ellis highlighted the ‘great deal of publicity’ the LDC application had received.

He said: “I would suggest that not too many people in Cranleigh are unaware of this.”